Did you know that feeling dizzy is one of the more common complaints that bring a patient into a doctor’s office?

A high percentage of people over the age of 50 will experience bouts of dizziness for no obvious reason. In fact, I have even had people as young as teenagers in my office experiencing severe bouts of dizziness.

Before I continue further with this article, it is important to mention that anyone who is experiencing dizziness should see their medical doctor right away to rule out other serious causes of dizziness. One should not assume that bouts of dizziness are a benign problem. Once the more serious, and potentially life-threatening, causes of dizziness have been ruled out, then a trip to your chiropractor may be indicated.

To help you understand how you can all of a sudden get dizzy, it will help to explain how your body is able to regulate your balance. Your sense of balance is maintained by a complex interaction of the following parts of the nervous system:

Your inner ear tells your brain what direction you are moving (forward-backward, side-to-side, and up-and-down).

Your eyes tell your brain what direction you are moving and what position your body is in (upside-down or right-side-up).

Nerve endings or receptors in the joints and muscles tell your brain what part of you is touching the ground and what body parts are moving.
These nerve endings are abundant in the joints of your neck.

If some of these nerve endings from the joints of the neck are sending incorrect information to your brain, you will feel like you are moving when you really are not, causing dizziness, nausea, and even vomiting.

In my office, the people I see for dizziness typically have neck problems or have had their neck injured (as in a whiplash injury from a car accident). When the neck has been injured, the tiny nerve endings or receptors in the individual joints can go “offline.”

In regards to the position or movement of the joints in your neck, they can send inaccurate information to the brain, causing dizziness.

Once the neck receives chiropractic treatment and begins to heal, the joints can then send accurate information in regards to the position and movement of the head and neck, allowing the dizziness to subside.

One of the other common causes of dizziness that I see in my office is due to problems in the inner ear. The inner ear is made up of a series of tiny tubes and sacs that are filled with fluid.

On the inner surface of these tubes are microscopic “hairs” that sense the movement of the fluid as you move your head. These hairs then send this information to your brain and you become consciously aware that you are moving.

Sometimes small “crystals” can get into these tubes or sacs and touch the hairs. This will give you an intense sensation that you are moving when you are really not, causing acute dizziness. In severe cases, you may find yourself lying on the floor in the fetal position feeling severely nauseous.

For this type of dizziness, there is a potentially simple cure. It is called the canalith repositioning procedure which involves moving your head in specific directions and in a specific order. The goal is to progressively flush the crystals to a spot in the inner ear where they do not stimulate the hairs.

Afterward, you will have to keep your head upright for 48 hours, even while sleeping. The success rate for this procedure is anywhere from 60 to 90 per cent, and the symptoms often don’t return. If they do, repeating the procedure may help.

If you are experiencing bouts of dizziness due to potential inner ear or neck problem, see your chiropractic doctor so that he or she may help you to end the spin cycle you are in.